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Strengthens arts education and training across early childhood, K–12 schools, and youth justice programs. It requires child care providers to receive professional development, including strategies for nutrition, physical activity, age‑appropriate screen use, and teaching methods across the arts, language, literacy, math, science, and social studies— with added focus for providers serving priority groups and children with disabilities. States and school districts must plan for arts education, report on arts courses, and factor arts offerings into school improvement. Teacher pathways and professional development for arts educators are expanded, and partnerships with arts organizations in afterschool programs are encouraged. The bill also promotes research and data on arts education and restores regular national arts testing, while encouraging arts education in juvenile justice coordination and reentry programs. No new funding levels or deadlines are specified.
Amends the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 by replacing section 658G(b)(1) subparagraph (A) to require offering training, coaching, or professional development opportunities for child care providers. The training must relate to use of evidence-based, developmentally appropriate and age-appropriate strategies to promote children’s social, emotional, physical, adaptive, communication, and cognitive development, including key programmatic strategies. It also requires offering specialized training for child care providers caring for populations prioritized in section 658E(c)(2)(Q) and for children with disabilities.
Adds a new definition in section 658P for “Key programmatic strategies,” defined as strategies related to: (A) nutrition and physical activity; (B) recommended practices for age-appropriate exposure to screen media; and (C) the integration and use of instructional methods to assist learning across disciplines, including methods using the arts, language, literacy, mathematics, science, and social studies.
Clarifies that, unless otherwise stated, references in this title to an amendment or repeal refer to a section or provision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.).
Adds a new required element to each State’s plan (Section 1111(g)) requiring the State educational agency to describe how it will use arts education to improve student achievement, including supporting a variety of arts experiences, integrating arts into the curriculum, increasing arts educators, using partnerships with specialized teaching artists to train teachers, ensuring standards-based and sequential arts instruction, focusing arts classes on schools with high percentages of low-income students, students with disabilities, English learners, or students of color, and supporting partnerships for afterschool and summer creative youth development. (Subitems A–G).
Amends local plan requirements (Section 1112(b)) by inserting a new paragraph requiring each local educational agency to describe how it will support learning in the arts and encourage use of arts education to improve student achievement consistent with the State plan requirement in section 1111(g)(5).
Adds a new paragraph (34) to 42 U.S.C. 5633(a) requiring States to describe how they will coordinate juvenile justice and delinquency prevention services and activities with State and local agencies and organizations, including State and local arts agencies, arts organizations, and organizations that further creative youth development.
Modifies subsection (a) by inserting a new paragraph (11) requiring the Research Center to carry out rigorous, peer-reviewed, large-scale research on the use of the arts and arts education to identify effective, cost-efficient, and scalable methods for elementary and secondary classrooms (including low-performing schools); strikes punctuation at the end of subparagraph (10)(D) and redesignates existing subparagraph (11) as (12).
Amends subsection (a)(1) by inserting a new subparagraph (O) addressing 'access to, the integration of and the inclusion of arts education', adjusts punctuation in subparagraph (N), and redesignates existing subparagraph (O) as (P).
Adds a new paragraph (7) to subsection (b) directing the Assessment Board to select the arts as a subject to be assessed under that subsection, at the same frequency and in the same grades (at a minimum) as such assessment was scheduled prior to July 24, 2021.
Modifies subsection (b)(3) of 20 U.S.C. 6613 to insert a new permissible local use of funds explicitly supporting pathways to obtain rigorous, high-quality teacher certification or licensure for individuals seeking to become teachers of the arts, and adds new subsections at the end of section 6613 requiring professional development for teachers of the arts and for integrating the arts into other subject instruction.
Adds a new authorized activity under 20 U.S.C. 7175(a) (new subparagraph (15)) to permit eligible entities to partner with, integrate the services of, and utilize services and offerings provided by arts services organizations and community-focused arts nonprofits that further creative youth development.
Inserts additional language after paragraph (a)(6) of 20 U.S.C. 7173(a) (text of the insertion is not shown in the section), modifying the State application requirements related to ensuring programs implement effective strategies.
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Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Introduced March 31, 2025 by Suzanne Bonamici · Last progress March 31, 2025
Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Introduced in House